1993-1994 La Primavera Project (LPP)
Chris Beekman

      This was a two year project in the Sierra La Primavera, a low mountain range separating the Atemajac valley (where Guadalajara now lies) and the Tequila valleys to the west (map). The project was funded by the National Science Foundation, Vanderbilt University's Dissertation Improvement Program, Sigma Xi, and the Explorer's Club. Robert Novella (then of the Colegio de Michoacan) and Alec Christensen (then of Vanderbilt University) worked with me in the field, and I carried out petrographic analysis of the ceramics in Vanderbilt University's Geology Department. Further Neutron Activation Analysis was carried out thanks to the Missouri University Research Reactor. I was able to carry out substantial associated research and writing while a Junior Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Library, in Washington, D.C. The research is described in my 1996 dissertation.
      The project was focused on the La Venta Corridor, a pass through the Sierra la Primavera and a natural communication route between the Atemajac valley and the Tequila valleys. Following up on earlier proposals by Phil Weigand (Colegio de Michoacan), I examined the corridor as a potential boundary of the Teuchitlan tradition, a complex society centered in the Tequila valleys and chronologically situated in the Mesoamerican Late Formative through Classic periods (perhaps 300 B.C. - A.D. 1000). I used comparative data on the political organization of Tarascan, Aztec, and Classic Maya polities, as well as Old World polities such as Han China, Old through New Kingdom Egypt, and Southeast Asian polities, to build a predictive model relating the formal properties of boundaries to strategies of political domination. While boundaries are sometimes thought of as modern inventions caused by the "filling in" of once empty territory, I argue instead that those polities exercising a more "Territorial" form of direct administration (such as the central area of the Roman Empire) tended to control access to their territory, while those who dominated their subjects through more "Hegemonic" and indirect methods (such as the Aztec Empire), tended not to have defined boundaries. This pattern makes sense, as the first kind of political system tends to focus on control over territory, while the latter is more concerned with control over people.
      Survey and small scale excavations indicate that the La Venta Corridor had only minimal human occupation during the Pre-Tabachines phase, prior to the development of a complex core in the Tequila valleys. Small sites with individual shaft tombs or groups of shaft tombs appear during the Early Tabachines phase. As population growth associated with the Teuchitlan Tradition continued in the Middle Tabachines phase, small settlements and public architecture appear in the Corridor, including the foundation of the hilltop sites of Peñol de Tepopote and the Southwestern Tepopote Complex. As the Teuchitlan tradition continued to centralize in the Late Tabachines phase, most settlement emptied out of peripheral areas like the La Venta Corridor, leaving only the hilltop sites. Similar strategic sites over passes into the Tequila valleys at the Peñol de Santa Rosalia, Llano Grande, and others (possibly Santa Maria de las Navajas, although it is also large). They all appear to date to the same Middle and Late Tabachines phase, and all appear to have been abandoned during the following El Grillo phase, when new architecture such as at Vacas Muertas appears in the La Venta Corridor. I argue that these sites constitute the best evidence to date that the Teuchitlan tradition developed some kind of central decision-making authority (i.e. became a single polity) during the Middle Classic period. The distinct architecture associated with this polity was also selectively adopted elsewhere in western Mexico along major transportation routes. I have argued that the political authority of the core was less structured outside of central Jalisco, and consisted of a series of patron-client relationships between the core elite and the semi-independent elites in surrounding regions.


On a strictly methodological note, the project produced:

• Very detailed settlement data for an area outside the Teuchitlan core proper.
• A ceramic typology partly based on the earlier work of Phil Weigand and Javier Galvan, but expanded and supported with additional petrographic data. The vessels illustrated to the right are most likely Oconahua Red on White in the ceramic typology.
• A detailed evaluation of the existing architectural and ceramic chronological sequences, and an analysis of the correspondence of the two.
• Contributed to the database of obsidian sources characterized by Neutron Activation Analysis.

Links to related publications:

• Beekman, Christopher S. In press. The Chronological Context of the Central Jalisco Shaft Tombs. In Ancient West Mexico: Shaft Tomb Studies, Robert Pickering, ed. Gordon and Breach Publishers.
• Beekman, Christopher S. and L. Javier Galván Villegas. In press. The Shaft Tombs of the Atemajac Valley and Their Relation to Settlement. In Ancient West Mexico: Shaft Tomb Studies, Robert Pickering, ed. Gordon and Breach Publishers.
• Beekman, Christopher S. 2000. Los Estudios de Casos Históricos y su Contribución al Estudio Arqueológico de los Sistemas Politicos. Special section on History and Archaeology, Relaciones del Colegio de Michoacán, Estudios de Historia y Sociedad 82: 17-38.
• Beekman, Christopher S. and Phil C. Weigand. 2000. La Cerámica Arqueológica de la Tradición Teuchitlán, Jalisco. Colegio de Michoacán and the Secretaría de Cultura del Estado de Jalisco, Zamora, Michoacán.
• Beekman, Christopher S. 1998. A Comparison of Different Methods to Estimate Population among Sites in the La Venta Corridor, Highland Jalisco. Paper presented at the 21^st Midwestern Mesoamerican Meetings, East Lansing.
• Beekman, Christopher S. 1997. An Intrasite Examination of a Shaft Tomb Site in Central Jalisco, Mexico. Paper presented at the 96^th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.
• Beekman, Christopher S. 1997. The Link Between Political Boundaries and Political Models: A Case Study from Classic Period Jalisco, Mexico. Invited paper presented at the 62^nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Nashville.
• Beekman, Christopher S. 1996. Political Boundaries and Political Structure: The Limits of the Teuchitlán Tradition. Ancient Mesoamerica 7(1): 135-147.
• Beekman, Christopher S. 1995. The El Grillo Complex of Central Jalisco: Teotihuacan Expansion or Epiclassic Movements from the Northern Frontier? Invited paper presented at the 60^th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Minneapolis.
• Beekman, Christopher S. 1994. A Classic Period Political Boundary in the Sierra La Primavera Region, Jalisco, Mexico. Paper presented at the 59^th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Anaheim.

Comments to Chris Beekman